Violent Agreement Amongst Systems and Software Engineers, CSER 2008

Recent discussions of how to integrate systems and software engineers begs the question to de- fine the difference between these two disciplines. The disciplines of electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering do not seem to be engaged in this discussion. By performing some basic lexi- cal analysis between the published bodies of knowle dge, we observe that software engineers and systems engineers use similar, but not identical co ncepts to describe their discipline of expertise. Through lexical analysis, systems and software engi neering seem more similar to each other than to civil engineering. In the end, the differences in systems and software engineering are conclud- ed to be one where the two disciplines are in viole nt agreement on the principles, but differ in ex- act utilization of concepts.